Banana Bread Lara Bar

Last week the local "health food" store had a sale on Larabars, which I love, but I can't eat most of them because of the nuts they use and they are usually very expensive.  I looked at the ingredients and did some searching online and found out that they whole process of making these wouldn't be very hard and I could customize them with non-allergy causing ingredients.

I hope you try these; they are especially good for breakfast and will keep you full for a long time.  Although I highly recommend trying the real thing, this is a great recipe and ends up being a lot cheaper.

Banana Bread Lara Bars

• 3 cups dates (make sure you pit them, I initially forgot this step!)
• 1/2 cup banana chips
• 1 cup walnuts
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon

1. Chop up the dates in a food processor (a blender may work, but you might burn out the engine, not sure).
2. Remove the dates from the food processor and put in the banana chips and walnuts.  Pulse the nuts and fruit a few times until chopped into little pieces.
3. Place the dates, walnuts, and bananas into a bowl and sprinkle with cinnamon.  Mix with your hands until fully combined.
4. On parchment or wax paper, spread the mixture out into a rectangle.  It should be about 1/2 inch thick.  Cut into eight pieces.  They should look like granola bars, or similar to that.  If you have ever had a Lara Bar, it should look pretty similar.  If you haven't had one, well, I probably should have taken a picture!!!

Pumpkin Bars

Hello again.  I know its been a while.  I'm more than halfway through my student teaching and I have really been enjoying it.  I had a little time last weekend and was hanging out with Brittani, so I made some pumpkin bars in honor of Fall!!  I love pumpkin and all things pumpkin related. These bars are very yummy and have the perfect balance of frosting and cake.  I hope you get to try these and enjoy them!

Pumpkin Bars with Cream Cheese Frosting
from: How to Simplify

Ingredients:
Bars

• 4 eggs
• 1 2/3 cups sugar
• 1 cup canola oil
• 1 can (15 ounces) pumpkin
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda

Frosting

• 1 package (8 ounces) cream cheese, softened
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened
• 3-4 cups confectioners' sugar
• 1-2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease a 9x13 baking dish.
2. Mix the eggs, sugar, oil and pumpkin with a mixer until light and fluffy.
3. Pour flour, powder, cinnamon, salt and baking soda into another bowl and mix.
4. Pour flour mixture into pumpkin mixture and mix until incorporated and smooth.
5. Pour the batter into the baking dish and level out the batter.
6. Bake for 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
7. Remove from the oven and allow to cool before removing from the dish or frosting.
8. Frost the bars when they have cooled -- To make the frosting: Combine cream cheese and butter in a bowl and mix until smooth. Add the sugar slowly until you reach the desired consistency. Stir in the vanilla.

Strawberry Lemonade Bars

Me and Brittani have been baking a lot together and I don't mind because her kitchen is much bigger than mine :)
We made these on Saturday to go along with the alligator burgers and butternut squash fries that she and her husband made, yum.  I had never had alligator before and I was quite surprised!  It was very tasty, especially with the barbecue sauce and bacon from the butcher we put on them!

On to the recipe: these Strawberry Lemonade bars were really tasty and a nice, light dessert for a hot summer night.  These were a bit tart, so if you want a sweeter bar, I would recommend using 1 1/2 cups of sugar instead of the called for 1 1/4.  Also, the crust is a little thin on these, so if you like a nice, thick shortbread crust you may want to consider multiplying the crust ingredients by 1.5.

Strawberry Lemonade Bars
from: Playing House
Crust

• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup butter, room temperature
• 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
• 1/4 tsp salt

Filling

• 1 cup fresh lemon juice (Amy's note: I used an entire 3 lb. bag of small lemons to get a cup of juice)
• 2-3 tsp lemon zest
• 1/2 cup pureed strawberries (about 3/4 cup berries)
• 1 1/4 cups sugar
• 4 large eggs
• 1/4 cup all purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• Powdered sugar (optional)

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Lightly grease a 9×13-inch baking pan.

2. Begin by making the crust. In a large bowl, cream together sugar and butter, until smooth and fluffy. Working at a low speed, gradually beat in flour and salt until mixture is crumbly. Pour into prepared pan and press into an even layer. Bake for about 17 minutes, until set at the edges.

3. While the crust bakes, prepare the filling. In the bowl of a food processor (or blender!!), combine lemon juice, lemon zest, strawberry puree, sugar and eggs and process until smooth. Add in flour, baking powder and salt, then pulse until smooth. Gently pour the filling over the hot crust when it has finished baking. Return pan to oven and bake for 23-26 minutes, until the filling is set (There will be a light colored “crust” on top from the sugar in the custard - nothing to worry about).

4. Dust with powdered sugar if desired. Cool completely before slicing and use a damp knife to ensure clean slices. Store bars in the refrigerator, especially on a hot day.

Makes 24 bars.

Oreo Cheesecake Bars

I've kind of been on an Oreo kick lately.  Lemon was the theme a few months ago, now I've moved on.  Oreos are delicious on their own, but adding them to other things multiplies their deliciousness in my opinion.

Max and I went to our friends' house yesterday for Memorial Day.  Brittani and Chris just moved into a new house and it has an amazing backyard, which we enjoyed a great dinner in.  We had buffalo chicken legs, salad, and quinoa salad (which I will post the recipe for soon).  We also had Oreo Cheesecake Bars.  These are really easy because you can do the whole thing in a food processor and you don't need a springform pan (although I really want an excuse to use mine!).

I took a picture, but I forgot to put in on my computer, so I will add it later.

Oreo Cheesecake Bars
adapted from: Annie's Eats
Ingredients:
For the crust:

• 23 Oreo cookies
• 2 tbsp. unsalted butter, melted

For the cheesecake:

• 12 oz. cream cheese, at room temperature
• 6 tbsp. sugar
• 6 tbsp. sour cream, at room temperature
• ½ tsp. vanilla extract
• ¼ tsp. salt
• 1 large egg plus 1 egg yolk
• 12 Oreo cookies, roughly chopped

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 325˚ F.  Line an 8 x 8-inch baking dish with foil.  
2. To make the crust, place the Oreos in the bowl of a food processor.  Process, pulsing, until the cookies are finely ground.  Add in the melted butter and pulse until the cookie crumbs are moistened.  Transfer the mixture to the prepared baking pan.  Press the crumbs into an even layer over the bottom of the pan.  Bake the crust for 10 minutes, then set aside and prepare the filling while maintaining the oven temperature. 
3. To make the filling, add the cream cheese to the bowl of the food processor and process until light and smooth, about 2 minutes (you don't need to clean out your processor bowl since you'll be adding more Oreos soon).  Mix in the sugar until well combined.  Blend in the sour cream, vanilla and salt.  Beat in the egg and egg yolk until incorporated and very smooth looking, scraping down the bowl as needed. Stir in the chopped Oreos with a rubber spatula (or if you want smaller pieces, you can add them in the food processor).  
4. Pour the cheesecake batter over the prepared crust, smoothing the top with a spatula.  Bake for about 40 minutes, until the cheesecake is set around the edges but slightly wobbly in the center.  Transfer the pan to a wire rack and let cool about 1 hour to room temperature.  Cover the pan and refrigerate until well chilled, about 3 hours.  
5. To cut the bars, pull the cake from the pan by lifting the foil up out of the pan.  Place on a cutting board, peel away the foil, and slice into bars.  Clean the knife blade between each slice to keep the edges neat.  Keep refrigerated until ready to serve. 

Grapefruit Lemon Bars

I went to the farmer's market a couple of weeks ago and bought two grapefruits.  I ate one and didn't feel like eating the other one.  So what do you do with one grapefruit and one lemon? Make Grapefruit Lemon Bars!  I've been on a huge citrus kick lately.  This is the third tray of lemon bars I have made in the past two weeks.  They are addictive and I'm sad that citrus and quickly going out of season :(  I am happy, however, that lots of other fruits will be coming into season soon!

About these bars: they have a wonderful shortbread crust with a creamy, yellow grapefruit and lemon curd.  Making the curd is a little time consuming (you have to whisk for a while)  but the results are SO worth it.  I had to grab a spoon and scrape the bowl when I had poured all of the curd onto the crust.  I even bought more lemons today so I can make a big batch of this stuff to put on toast, cookies, a spoon....

By the way, Max and our friend Luke gave these a big thumbs up!

Grapefruit Lemon Bars
From: OB Cookie 

Shortbread Crust
Adopted from Joy of Cooking

• ¾ cup unsalted butter (1 ½ sticks) softened
• 2 tbsp sour cream
• ¼ cup confectioner’s sugar (powdered sugar)
• 2 tbsp granulated sugar
• ¼ tsp salt
• 1 ½ cups all purpose flour

1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees. 
2. In large bowl beat all ingredients minus flour.  Stir in flour.  Light knead until blended. 
3. In 8x8 baking pan with fingers press dough into bottom and up around the edges about ¾ in. 
4. Bake for about 35 minutes or until lightly browned and darker at the edges. 
5. While baking, make the curd filling.  
6. Allow to cool slightly for about 5 minutes and add the curd.  Refrigerate for 4-5 hours or until cool and set.  Sprinkle with powdered sugar and enjoy!

Grapefruit Curd
Adopted from James Peterson’s Baking

• Juice and zest from one ruby red grapefruit (about 1 cup juice)
• Juice and zest from one lemon
• 4 eggs
• ¾ cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup plus 2 tbsp unsalted butter cut into tablespoon pieces

1. Set a saucepan of water over medium heat and bring to a simmer.  
2. In a heatproof bowl that will fit over pan, whisk together eggs and sugar for about 2 minutes until pale.  
3. Then whisk zests and juice.  
4. Set the bowl over the saucepan.  Stir constantly with a whisk for about 8 minutes or until the mixture starts to thicken (this took me about 12 minutes, be patient!).  
5. Add the sliced butter, one piece at a time and stir constantly.  
6. Cook for about 2 minutes longed.  Remove from heat. 

Birthday Post!

I haven't posted in a while! I have been so busy with the fourth grade class and so tired when I come home that not much has gotten baked the past two weeks.  During spring break I made pretzels, those were super yummy and I might post that recipe soon.  Yesterday I made cupcakes for the class today, but I used the recipe for chocolate cake and vanilla frosting that I posted a little bit ago.  So, today I am going to share a recipe I got from the Pioneer Woman (if you have never visited her site, you should and you may just fall in love) for Lemon Squares.

Creamy Lemon Crumb Squares
from: Pioneer Woman

Prep Time: 15 Minutes

Cook Time: 25 Minutes

Difficulty: Easy

Servings: 12

Ingredients

• 1-⅓ cup All-purpose Flour
• ½ teaspoons Salt
• 1 teaspoon Baking Powder
• 1 stick (1/2 Cup) Butter, Slightly Softened
• 1 cup Brown Sugar (lightly Packed)
• 1 cup Oats
• 1 can (14 Ounce) Sweetened Condensed Milk (you can use fat free!)
• ½ cups Lemon Juice
• Zest Of 1 Lemon

Preparation Instructions

1. PREHEAT OVEN TO 350 DEGREES.
2. Mix butter and brown sugar until well combined.
3. Sift together flour, salt, and baking powder.
4. Add oats and flour to butter/sugar mixture and mix to combine.
5. Press half of crumb mixture into the bottom of an 8 x 11 inch pan.
6. Mix together condensed milk, lemon juice, and lemon zest. Spread onto the bottom layer of the crumb mixture. Top with the other half of the crumb mixture, but don’t press.
7. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, or until golden brown.
8. Allow pan to sit on counter for 30 minutes after baking. Cut into squares and refrigerate for a couple of hours or until cool.
9. Serve cool. They really taste better cold, the lemon shines!

Orange Brownies

When I get stressed, or bored, or antsy, or if I have anything else I should be doing, I usually end up baking.  One time, when I was stressed, Max looked over to me and said, "do you need to bake something?"  This week has been one of those weeks.  I'm on spring break so I'm bored and I feel stuck in the house.  So, I made chocolate orange brownies.  I really wanted to make a cake, but we were missing some ingredients.  I think I will need to try something more challenging soon because as soon as the brownies were done, I wanted to make something else.

These Chocolate Orange Brownies were good, but a little dry.  I think I overcooked them a little because they had set all of the way when I took them out and a toothpick came out clean.  I even cooked them for five minutes less than the recipe called for, but I've mentioned my crazy oven before, right?

Chocolate Orange Brownies
From: Rock Recipes

• 3/4cup all-purpose flour
• 2 tablespoon cocoa powder
• 1/4teaspoon salt
• 1/2cup butter
• 5 squares unsweetened chocolate
• 3/4cup granulated sugar
• ¼ cup light-brown sugar
• 3large eggs
• 1teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3/4cup semisweet chocolate chips
• zest of one large orange

1. Sift together flour, cocoa and salt. Melt together butter and unsweetened chocolate over low heat (either in the microwave or a double boiler). Remove from heat and cool to lukewarm. Add eggs,vanilla and sugars. Stir very well until sugars are dissolved.
2. Gently fold in dry ingredients. Then fold in: zest of one large orange, finely grated and chopped
3. Pour batter into a 9 inch square baking pan that has been greased and lined with parchment paper (or just greased like I did). Sprinkle the top of the batter with the chocolate chips.
4. Bake for about a half hour (I baked for 25 minutes and they were overcooked, start at 20) at 350 degrees F or until the surface of the center of the brownies appears dry and firm. Toothpick test will not work for this recipe but it will tell you if the middle is still liquid. Do not over bake these brownies or they will be dry rather than moist and chewy.
5. Cut into squares when still slightly warm, they cut more cleanly.

Granola and Brownies

Another busy week, but I managed to make a few things.  I made a really bad soup this week, I won't share that recipe.  I did make some awesome brownies for Valentine's Day.  They had cherry chips in them; they're like chocolate chips, but cherry flavored.  I also made some maple-pumpkin granola this weekend.  I managed not to burn it, which was good.  I love granola and always want to buy it, but it is so expensive!  It was so cheap to make :)
I also started my block student teaching last week.  I am helping out in a fourth grade class room with a partner.  It is supposed to ease us into student teaching.  I will do two more Fridays in the class and then I'll be there for three full weeks.  I'll get to teach and help out kids!

Here are the recipes for the brownies and granola.  Sorry there are no pictures!!!

Brownies
adapted from Aaron Sanchez's Mexican Brownies

• 2 sticks unsalted butter, plus more for greasing
• 2 cups sugar
• 4 large eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2/3 cup good-quality unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a 9-by-13-inch baking dish with parchment paper, leaving an overhang on two sides. Press the paper into the corners of the pan and lightly grease the paper with butter.
2. Melt the 2 sticks of butter in a nonstick saucepan over medium-low heat; do not boil. Remove from the heat and let cool slightly. Add the sugar, eggs and vanilla to the saucepan and stir with a wooden spoon until combined.
3. Add the cocoa, flour, cinnamon, chili powder, salt and baking powder and mix until smooth. Spread the batter in the prepared pan and bake until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out fudgy, 20 to 25 minutes. Cool in the pan on a rack, then use the parchment paper to lift out the brownies before slicing.

*I added cherry chips.  If you add these or regular chips, add them last.

Maple Pumpkin Granola
adapted from Sugar Plum

• 1/3 cup pumpkin puree
• 1/3 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/4 cup pure maple syrup
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
• 1/2 cup sunflower seeds
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 1/4 cups old fashioned oats
• 1/4-1/2 cup Craisins

1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees.  Coat a large cookie sheet with cooking spray.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together, pumpkin, brown sugar, maple syrup, butter, cinnamon, vanilla and salt until combined; stir in oats and sunflower seeds until combined.  Spread onto cookie sheet.
3. Bake for 40-45 minutes or until golden brown and slightly crisp.  Remove from oven and stir in craisins and cool.